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PixTech, Sumitomo Enter
Flat-Panel-Display Pact

TOKYO -- PixTech Inc., a U.S. maker of a new type of flat-panel display, has signed a distribution agreement with Japanese trading-house giant Sumitomo Corp., a PixTech official said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sumitomo will lend PixTech $10 million, which PixTech will use to finance the purchase of flat-panel production equipment for its foundry partner, Unipac of Taiwan. In return, PixTech will grant Sumitomo exclusive distribution rights in Japan and to Japanese transplant operations, and nonexclusive rights for the rest of Asia.

"We believe the flat-panel display market is an Asian market for now,'' said Francis Courreges, an executive vice president at PixTech. "We want to meet the toughest customers in the world [in Japan]. If our product is good enough for Japan, it's good enough for anywhere else in the world.''

PixTech, whose headquarters are in Santa Clara, California, designs so-called field-emission displays, or FEDs, a new type of flat-panel display that works on the same principle as a television screen. Unlike the displays now widely used in notebook computers and hand-held devices, which rely on relatively slow-moving liquid crystals to project new images, FEDs can update a projected image as quickly and cleanly as a current computer monitor or television can, Mr. Courreges said. FEDs could thus theoretically offer a brighter, crisper picture than existing flat screens, although they will likely face an uphill battle against the popular technology now in use.

PixTech has licensed its technology to several partners, including Motorola Inc. of the U.S. and Futaba Corp. of Japan, and plans to begin manufacturing its own products at Unipac's foundry by mid-1998. PixTech first intends to offer five-inch to eight-inch screens for use in instrumentation and transportation applications, and eventually plans to develop larger screens that can be used as replacements for televisions and desktop personal-computer monitors. PixTech doesn't intend to market its screens for use in notebook computers, Mr. Courreges said, because of the already keen competition in that area.